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Arctic Melt, by Andy Armstrong, NOAA

Caution

All technical information and scientific data released by US Government agencies (e.g., NASA, EPA…) are subject to sudden variation because of political expediency.
This caution also extends to the fidelity of the information provided by UN organizations (e.g., FAO, WHO…).

WARNING!

Point of No Return:
Unless global energy consumption is reduced immediately to below 60EJ, mechanisms that are destroying ecosystems including ozone holes, global heating, extreme climate events... reach the point of no return, overwhelm the life support systems, render most cities uninhabitable by 2015 or earlier.

Posts Tagged ‘Obama’

I was about to say thank God the evil Osama is finally dead

Can you imagine the outcome of the recent wave of ‘terrorist activity,’ if he was still alive, trained the evil terrorists and supplied them with real bombs?

Thousands of people would have surely been killed by now.

Osama Bin Laden personified evil. He was also the guy who helped to sign the death warrant for the Soviet Empire. No one has ever been able to train terrorists and make them as deadly as he did.

Yes, I was about to say all of that, when the “counter-terrorism” industry summoned him from the dead, again!

“A purported audio tape of Osama bin Laden aired on Al Jazeera television claimed responsibility for a December 25 attempted bombing of a U.S.-bound plane, and the al Qaeda leader vowed to continue attacks on the United States.” Reuters UK reported.

b). Thank God the new master bomb-maker is a double agent and makes bombs that don’t explode. And thank God our Israeli friends, who recruit the terrorists, carefully select the wimps and morons to make sure they could do no physical harm to us.

Could you imagine the mayhem, if OBL was still alive, recruiting and training the really nasty ones, AND arming them with real bombs, all by himself?

So what did the guys who summoned OBL from the Hades again had him say to convince us this time?

“The message sent to you with the attempt by the hero Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab is a confirmation of our previous message conveyed by the heroes of September 11.”

This is odd because Osama, when he was still alive, denied having had anything to do with 9/11 attacks on America. But, this time, not only he is claiming responsibility for the 9/11 crimes, he is making a back-to-back terrorism cross reference confirmation!

“If it was possible to carry our messages to you by words we wouldn’t have carried them to you by planes,” bin Laden added in a message he said was directed “from Osama to (U.S. President Barrack) Obama.”

What clever little slogan: “from Osama to Obama!” The experts have instantly elevated the dead Osama as the equivalent of the living Obama. “Osama” has once again been elevated to the “king-of-the-terrorists” status!

You’ll see why this is necessary, of course, in the greater scheme of things.

“Our attacks against you will continue as long as U.S. support for Israel continues,” bin Laden said. “It is not fair that Americans should live in peace as long as our brothers in Gaza live in the worst conditions.”

Hold on a minute. What about “my brothers in Afghanistan?” Come to think of it you haven’t made many references to the mayhem in your favorite country.

You are not by any chance trying to associate yourself with your “brothers in Gaza” to give them a bad name on behalf of Israel, are you?

But of course you are. You call the people of Gaza your brothers because you want to dehumanize them as your equals—terrorists.

Gazans, Palestinians, are neither your brothers, nor terrorists. They are ordinary human beings who have lived under the occupation of Israelis for three generations.

The psychiatrists and conjurers who run their fingers on Osama Ouija board are methodically consistent. Each of Osama Bin Lately’s manufactured proclamations must have the following elements to qualify as “useful.”

1. Mutual Enforcement. The messages must be “mutually enforcing” by cross-referencing multiple events and relating one event to another. A recent event must relate to 9/11, and vice versa, to re-validate both events as “Osma’s” work [sic.]

What about the traces of explosives found in ground zero that confirms beyond any doubt whatever that the WTC buildings collapse was planned demolition? [Don’t worry, they say, people are being kept too busy afraid of terrorism to worry about the fine prints.]

2. Identify Freedom-Fighters, especially Palestinians, as Terrorists. As the old proverb goes, “give the dog a bad name…” The act is designed to directly serve the state of Israel’s purpose, justifying acts of genocide against the Palestinians “terrorists.” That’s why “Osama” calls Palestinians his “brothers.”

3. Confirm Israel as the Perpetual Victim. It must reinforce the role of Israel as the only friend of the United States in the region, even the world. The “inverse victimization” of the “ever-suffering,” and “perpetually-victimized” state of Israel is a potent double psychology. What the fictitious Osama is saying is that “we” are in trouble because of Israel. The purpose is to make us even more resolute in protecting our only friend in the world.

4. Corporate Identity. Terrorist attacks must bear the al Qaeda hallmark, otherwise they are not “worthwhile.” The fear of NON-al-Qaeda terrorism simply isn’t scary enough. Terrorism must be big; it must appear organized, well rooted and ubiquitous to warrant multiple wars. You can’t start wars on for fronts, Iraq and Afghanistan together with Pakistan and Yemen, and justify the almost 4 trillion dollars thrown at the security/military-industrial-complex on the back of a teenager trying to blow up a plane with play clay.

5. Recognition of Presidential Patriotism. The fight against terrorism must be of epic proportions and quality, to stop people wondering why so much money is thrown at it. It must be viewed as a battle between the ultimate good and the pure evil. The point of summoning Osam from the daed is also to boost the incumbent President’s plunging popularity ratings. The “Osama to Obama” little talk-the-talk trick cuts both ways. Not only it elevates the status of Osama [The fact that he is dead is just a technicality] as the “king of terrorism” it also reinforces the standing of the President du jour, previously Bush, now Obama, as the main man to represent “good” and be reckoned with. As discussed above, if he is good enough for the world’s archenemy to address the president as his opponent, it must surely be sufficient for the citizens to defer to his authority. NO questions asked whatever action he decides to take. Body scanners at every shopping mall? No problem!

6. Reader’s Digest Clarity. OBL’s messages must be understandable by the dumbest village-idiot that ever existed, either side of the Mason-Dixon Line. The messages are not aimed at suave, smart Europeans because they invariably see through them. They are strictly for the U.S. home consumption.

The Haiti Scam Disaster

Bush Muscling in on Haiti Fund Money

With Obama’s blessings, his two predecessors, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton will lead efforts to raise “relief funds” for Haiti following the deadly earthquake that has killed several thousand people.

The Three Amigos Planning a Presidential Scam: Obama, flanked by Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, speaks in the Rose Garden at the White House on Saturday. Photo Credit: AP. Image may be subject to copyright.

The “services” of the two ex White House tenants don’t come cheap. Each will probably receive a multi-million dollar fee plus a cut of the action, as it were, for their fund-raising efforts. With the lion’s share of any funds raised going to the charity/aid/relief mafia, how can Bush and Clinton make any money?

There’s only one way to ensure everyone would get their usual fees and commissions:

Raise the Disaster Scale! Exaggerate the number of dead by at least a factor of 10!

It’s really quite easy, once you realize all of the characters involved are exactly the same (or similar) faces that carried out the last scam.

Neither have we! In fact MSRB Moderators are quite puzzled by some of the claims made by the Haitian government, as well the US and European presstitutes.

The following items are carefully omitted from the news:

a). The number of houses/buildings with concrete-slab roofs, or other heavy materials, that were destroyed in the earthquake. [Most of the houses in Port-au-Prince slums wouldn’t cause deaths, or even a serious injury to the occupants, upon collapse.]

b). The number of multi-story buildings that collapsed as a result of the earthquake.

c). According to one European News agency, “at least 70,000 people have already had burials.” That means between 20,000 and 30,000 people were buried yesterday (in the 24-hour period preceding the report). Now that is a miracle even by Haitian standards. The non-existent military/police/rescue workers, working on empty stomachs, non-stop around the clock, pulling 1,000 dead people out of the ruble each and every hour and burying them. WOW!

d). How and by whom were the recovery and burials coordinated? Where did they get their fleet of heavy earth moving equipment and the fuel to operate the machinery from? They had none. How did they recover so many bodies from the ruble with their bear hands in such an impossibly short time? Where was their command and control center? How come there isn’t a single piece of evidence to even partially substantiate their claims?

e). Where are these people buried? With so many reporters and TV news camera crews buzzing around, how come we haven’t seen a single video footage of a mass grave with, say, 1,000, or even 500 dead corpses laid down side by side before the burial?

How the head of the US military relief effort discredited himself

Gen Keen, the head of the US military relief effort, was asked what he thought of the death toll estimates of between 150,000 and 200,000. He reportedly said: “I think the international community is looking at those figures, and I think that’s a start point. Clearly, this is a disaster of epic proportions, and we’ve got a lot of work ahead of us.”

No evidence was asked for and none was offered!

A list of the parties that WOULD benefit from any funds raised by the 3 Amigos:

1. Charity/aid/relief mafia: They take between 50 to 80 percent (in some cases up to 95 percent, when no one is watching) of the funds raised
2. Tier One Fundraisers: The Three Amigos receive multi-million dollar fees, as well as their usual cut (from 1 percent upwards)
3. Singers and musicians that do “telethons”: Their fees vary
4. Fat Cats in various organization like the UN and Advisers to the military forces involved (who would then share the proceeds with the top brass): Varies
5. Local politicians in Haiti: Most of the leftover funds meant to go toward feeding the victims and rebuilding their lives.
6. Members of the press: For their “loyalty” (not blowing the whistle), they receive protection while they are in Haiti (and much recognition and prizes later), plus lots of stories and hours of disaster courage.
7. The victims: Perhaps a trickle, but they shouldn’t hold their breaths.

It’s no wonder President Chavez of Venezuela became hysterical during his weekly TV address:

“I read that 3,000 soldiers are arriving, Marines armed as if they were going to war. There is not a shortage of guns there, my God. Doctors, medicine, fuel, field hospitals, that’s what the United States should send.” He added: “They are occupying Haiti undercover.”

“On top of that, you don’t see them in the streets. Are they picking up bodies? … Are they looking for the injured? You don’t see them. I haven’t seen them. Where are they?”

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. Ignorance is strength.

Obama is a Conscientious War Criminal. He Deserves the Noble Peace Prize for Intensifying the War.

And if you don’t believe any of the above, see photo below:

President Barack Obama displays his Nobel Peace Prize on Thursday in Oslo, Norway. Thorbjoern Jagland, the chairman of the Nobel committee, is at left. Photo: Jewel Samad, AFP/Getty Images. Image may be subject to copyright.

Barely a week after ordering 30,000 more U.S. troops into Afghanistan battle zone, Obama delivered a 4,000-word, 36-minute Nobel acceptance speech blowing his own trumpet a little, while forcefully defending his war “plan.”

Obama refused to renounce war for United States or under his presidency, blurting defiantly that “I face the world as it is” and that “I have an obligation to protect and defend the United States.”

Then in the most effective Yiddish fashion, comparing his enemies to Adolph H. he boasted about his history knowledge:

“A nonviolent movement could not have halted Hitler’s armies. Negotiations cannot convince al-Qaida’s leaders to lay down their arms,” Obama said. “To say that force is sometimes necessary is not a call to cynicism, it is a recognition of history.”

To come to the aid of an invaded nation [opinions vary widely in Afghanistan as to which of the NATO member countries are the invaders]

On humanitarian grounds, for example when civilians are slaughtered by their own government [or by the Adolph Hitler troops] or a civil war threatens to engulf an entire region [because the NATO countries under US leadership are destabilizing the Middle East]

“The belief that peace is desirable is rarely enough to achieve it,” he said.

Speaking bluntly about the human cost of war [its rude to discuss the economic cost in your Nobel War Speech,] he said of the troops surge he had just ordered to Afghanistan “some will kill, some will be killed.”

“No matter how justified, war promises human tragedy,” he said.

Mr Obama, intending to kill more people in Afghanistan than did the former UK PM and war pimp Mr Blair in Iraq, received $1.4-million in cash prize, compared to Blair’s $1 million.

Should the 9/11 suspects go on trial in New York?

Quotes and Comments:

“What the Obama administration is telling us loud and clear is that both in substance and reality the war on terror from their point of view is over,” Mr. Giuliani said on “Fox News Sunday.” “This seems to be an overconcern with the rights of terrorists and a lack of concern for the rights of the public.”

What would the graduates at New Economic School in Moscow call the U-S President?

“Bullshit Barack!” That’s probably what the graduates at New Economic School in Moscow will call the president once the novelty of his visit has worn off, and they have read the Russian translation of his speech on US-Russia relations.

The speech was probably the worst example of total utter nonsense, contradictory thoughts and factually incorrect statements, ever strung together using meaningless words, that was delivered by a head of state, anywhere, anytime. The speech uttered by the president must have sounded as hollow and disingenuous to a Russian audience, old and young, as it would have to any other audience.

Take the following examples:

Great wealth has been created …

But where is it? Who has it? Show them the wealth! Demonstrate to the people where the wealth is actually accumulated, and at what cost to the environment and the lives of ordinary people!

Economic growth has NOT eliminated ignorance, poverty, ill health and social conflicts. In fact, the exponential growth economy is fully responsible for creating and exacerbating all of the environmental, human and social ills.

To begin with, let me be clear: America wants a strong, peaceful and prosperous Russia. This belief is rooted in our respect for the Russian people, and a shared history between our nations that goes beyond competition.

The fact is America wants a “neutered” Russia, one that cannot object to America’s empire-building.

In 2009, a great power does not show strength by dominating or demonizing other countries.

Do you mean the US is not dominating or demonizing other countries like North Korea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan… to name but a few?

The days when empires could treat sovereign states as pieces on a chess board are over.

So why does the United States still maintain 737 military bases around the globe, and militarily occupies two sovereign countries, namely Iraq and Afghanistan [and venturing into Pakistan,] ILLEGITIMATELY? http://www.alternet.org/story/47998

The pursuit of power is no longer a zero-sum game — progress must be shared.

How does the word “power” enter your thought system and comes out of your mouthpiece disguised as “progress?”

Please! Don’t insult the Russian students’ intelligence! The pursuit of power has never been more of a deadly and intense zero-sum game than now. As the world’s natural resources dwindle, energy and raw materials become scarcer, and the GDP in China, India, Brazil, Indonesia … surges upward, the “pursuit of power zero-sum game” becomes deadlier than ever before. Who are you kidding Mr. President?

We have to ask whether extremists who have killed innocent civilians in New York and in Moscow will show that same restraint. We have to ask whether 10 or 20 or 50 nuclear-armed nations will protect their arsenals and refrain from using them.

Clearly this “mindset” also negates the Russians. It goes against what General Leonid Ivashov, former Chief of Staff of the Russian armed forces, said about 9/11.

Yet another deadly important issue the president and top Russian thinkers strongly disagree on.

… progress must be shared.

So far the only part of the “progress” the US has shared with other nations is the “cost.” America is externalizing the cost of its failed empire-buildings to other nations, in what is the most egregious example of moral hazard.

I believe that the free market is the greatest force for creating and distributing wealth that the world has known.

Free to rip off the nations? If anyone disputes your words, tell them about the size of Wall Street blackmail, and smile at the same time so they might believe that nonsense, too.

Together, we can build a world where people are protected, prosperity is enlarged, and our power truly serves progress.

Together we have driven the world to the edge of eminent collapse, and you, Mr President, have the audacity of chutzpah to talk about “future,” “prosperity,” and the weapon of “power,” disguised as a tool to make “progress.”

You’ll excuse the sinister readers, if they don’t believe a word of that nonsense, Mr President.

The text of President Obama speech in Moscow was from an Associated press report, dated 7 July 2009.

This phrase used by President Lyndon Johnson for one of his political opponents comes to mind at a time early in the first 100 days of the Obama Administration when supposedly many long-overdue changes and rollbacks are possible.

It is not just that Congress is completely absorbed with the tax-cut-stimulus package. It is stasis that seems to be enveloping, even within its numerous well-funded and staffed committees in the House and Senate, from even the signaling of serious movement toward rolling back Bush-pushed legislation and starting widely supported forays that take hope to change.

The continuation of this state of stasis is made more likely because the Republican minority is feeling its oats. It put the White House on the defensive during the struggle to enact economic recovery legislation even though previous Republican policies and coddling of Wall Street for eight years build a steep cliff for financial collapse. Add the de-regulatory moves of 1999 and 2000 by the Clinton-Rubin crowd and the financial meltdown accelerates.

There is something else operating. One gets the feel on Capitol Hill among some fairly sharp people of a lack of horizon, a paucity of progressive determination, a sense of being overwhelmed by the corporate forces still bearing down on Congress—easily the most powerful branch of government under our Constitution.

But Congress does not act as if it is the most powerful branch. It routinely abdicates its constitutional responsibilities—the declaration of war authority and the plenary authority to investigate and require access to information in the executive branch.

Even after the Democrats took control of the Congress in January 2007, George W. Bush again and again got his way including a rubber stamp for the huge Iraq and Afghanistan war budgets outside of the normal appropriations processes.

Efforts by Senator Russ Feingold and Cong. John Conyers to move a modest censure resolution of Bush and Cheney for their many constitutional and statutory violations were aggressively rejected by their leaders—Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Harry Reid. In January 2007, Pelosi and Reid two took impeachment off the table allowing the most chronically impeachable presidency in our history to continue undisturbed.

Some staffers in Congress privately assert that the Democrats are not acting like a majority party. It is worse than that. They are not acting—period.

From their majority status in 2007 to 2009 and a Democratic President in the White House, the Congressional Democrats are not moving swiftly to repeal the ban on Uncle Sam negotiating drug prices from volume discounts under the drug benefit law. They are not moving to amend the Patriot Act, regain control of warrantless surveillance, strengthen the corporate criminal laws and enforcement budgets. Congress is not even pushing to require taxing Hedge Fund manager’s income as ordinary income not as capital gains.

I cite these policies because they are policies much favored by many Democratic lawmakers. But in practice lawmakers duck and duck and duck from translating their beliefs into contentious action vis-à-vis the lobbyists and their captive legislators.

Senator Chris Dodd and the vast majority of the American people want to do something about credit card company abuses and gouges. But he is surrounded not just by the Republicans on the Senate Banking Committees but high-ranking Democrats beholden to the financial goliaths who, are demanding and receiving hundreds of billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts.

There is word from the politicians that consideration of health care insurance—apart from a quickly enacted expansion of some coverage for more poor children—will be put off for a year. The trade unions’ top priority to enact labor law reforms, supported by Obama during his presidential campaign, are being held back by the Democrats.

There is even doubt whether the District of Columbia will get a voting Representative in the House when push comes to shove in the Senate.

The one-subject-at-a-time attitude is coming from the White House. “Obama doesn’t want it now” is a common phrase used by legislators to excuse themselves from exercising the separate but equal Congressional powers. This pretext applies to taking away some of the hugely expensive and unnecessary weapons systems like the F-22 aircraft decried by many military and retired military analysts. The vast, bloated military budget is sacrosanct on Capitol Hill as it is in the White House.

At a time of widely perceived needs for Congressional action, with large corporations busy applying for corporate welfare and on the defensive, the Democrats are not generating any momentum for standing for and with the people. Even in the midst of food contamination, illnesses and fatalities, they cannot turn around forty years of delay on giving the Food and Drug Administration adequate authority and inspectors to protect our food supply.

It is going to take a very focused civic jolt from you all to your Senators and Representatives. A couple of million jolters from our large country can get the train moving on the tracks. It doesn’t take much time to holler, yell or bellow with the facts.

You have been receiving a great deal of advice since November 4, 2008 from people and groups who either want you to advance policies not covered in your campaign or who want you to be more specific about initiatives you emphasized.

There are two suggestions which may not be among your store of recommendations that need to be considered before you take office on January 20, 2009.

First, the public would benefit from a concise recounting of the state of the union and where the Bush Administration has left our country. As is your style, you can render such a bright line of serious problems inside and outside the government in a matter-of-fact manner. Otherwise, a blurring of who was responsible for what can taint your presidency.

Second, you need to make a clean break from the Bush regime’s law of rule to our declared commitment to the rule of law as in the firm adherence to constitutional requirements and statutory and treaty compliance. There is a Bush-Cheney stream of criminal and unconstitutional actions which are on auto-pilot day after day. You have pointed out some of these abominations such as a policy and practice of torture and violations of due process and probable cause. The task before you is to break these daily patterns just as soon as you ascend to the Presidency or be held increasingly responsible for them. This can be significantly accomplished by executive orders, agency or departmental directives, whistle-blower protections, enforcement actions and explicit legislative proposals.

With Americans wishing you well in this most portentous of times, the last thing they want to see is you tarnished by the preceding rogue regime and its ruthless monarchical forays. To avoid this contagion of power over law and its contiguous accountabilities at a time when you are striving for a “clean slate” administration, you must be decisive and eschew any excessive harmony ideology which has seemed to be your nature vis-à-vis those who are powerful but are opposed to your views.

One possible impediment to your making a comprehensive clean break for restoring the rule of law is that you have too easy an act to follow. There are a long list of violated civil liberties that need to be restored (the American Civil Liberties Union has compiled a list of immediate actions for you to take), and resolute commitments must be made so that it is clear the United States, for example, will not engage in, or countenance, torture. Only a few restorations, however, would produce a sense of relief and flurry of accolades — but they are hardly sufficient.

There are also regulations and interpretations of statutes that scholars believe to have been erroneous as a matter of law. As one guide for your new era of overdue regulation or reregulation—given the corporate wrongdoing these days—you may wish to refer to the Center for Progressive Reform’s report By the Stroke of the Pen.

The Bush lawlessness and state terrorism are like a contagious disease. If you do not remove their sprawling incidence, you will become their carrier. This means you must move fast to eject the mantle of war criminality and repeated unconstitutional outrages committed in the name of the American people here and abroad.

Sincerely,

Ralph Nader

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Barack Obama is receiving lots of advice from many people these days about the collapse of Wall Street, the sinking economy and the quagmire wars he will inherit from the Bush regime. However, there is one important matter that he alone can address with his legal training and the sworn oath he will take on January 20 to uphold the Constitution. That phenomenon is the systemic, chronic lawlessness and criminality of the Bush/Cheney regime which he must unravel and stop.

To handle this immense responsibility as President, he needs to bring together a volunteer task force of very knowledgeable persons plus wise, retired civil servants to inventory the outlaw workings of this rogue regime.

Much is already known and documented officially and by academic studies and media reporting. In the category of “high crimes and misdemeanors”, are

(1) the criminal war—occupation of Iraq,
(2) systemic torture as a White House policy,
(3) arrests of thousands of Americans without charges or habeas corpus rights,
(4) spying on large numbers of Americans without judicial warrants and
(5) hundreds of signing statements by George W. Bush declaring that, he of the unitary presidency, will decide whether to obey the enacted bills or not.

To its everlasting credit, the conservative American Bar Association sent to President Bush three reports in 2005-2006 concluding that he has been engaged in continuing serious violations of the Constitution. This is no one-time Watergate obstruction of justice episode ala Nixon that led to his resignation just before his impeachment in the House of Representatives.

Nearly two years ago Senator Obama, contrary to what he knows and believes, vigorously came out against the House commencing impeachment proceedings. It would be too divisive, he said. As one of one hundred Senators who might have had to try the President and Vice President in the Senate were the House to impeach. He should have kept impartial and remained silent on the subject.

As President, he cannot remain silent and do nothing, otherwise he will inherit the war crimes of Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney and become soon thereafter a war criminal himself. Inaction cannot be an option.

Violating the Constitution and federal laws is now routine. What is routine after awhile becomes institutionalized lawlessness by official outlaws.

Domestic Policy abuses are also rampant. Just what are the limits of the statutory authority of the U.S. Treasury Department or the government within a government funded by bank assessments known as the Federal Reserve?

Don’t read the $750 billion bailout law for any answers! The Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi and the Majority Leader of the Senate, Harry Reid just sent a letter to Bush asking whether the White House believes the bailout law could be interpreted to save not just the reckless banks, but also the grossly mismanaged Big Three auto companies in Michigan.

Didn’t Congress know what they were or were not authorizing? Or did the stampede started by the demanding Bush result in blanket, or panicked ambiguity by a cowardly Congress?

This week, the Washington Post front paged an article that the Treasury Department unilaterally gave the banks a tax break that was estimated to be worth a staggering $140 billion. Just like that! Fiat! The Post reported that impartial legal experts flatly declared such a decision to be without statutory authority which means the Bush regime usurped the constitutional authority of Congress in matters of taxation and basically took out a 22 year old law enacted by Congress. Not to be outdone, on the same day, the lead article in the New York Times reported a four-year-old Bush doctrine allowing Special Forces and other armed force to pursue terrorists in any country in the world. The Times specified incursions at will into Syria, Iran, Somalia, Pakistan and other countries.

Such violations of national sovereignty without formal declarations of war or through formal interventions by the United Nations are violations of international law. The Bush government answers this assertion by its open-ended, totally self-defined, right of “self-defense” under the UN Charter. The same self-determining argument can be made by covert terrorists or covert actions by adversarial governments. This is an example of make-up-your-own international law to suit your own covert operations.

As a country that has the most to lose from the shredding of international law and order, the United States under Bush is giving many IOUs to revenge-minded suicidal adversaries. They can simply to their mass audiences say, if the U.S. can do anything it wants, why shouldn’t they?

It has been widely reported that the Justice Department under Mr. Ashcroft and Mr. Gonzalez epitomized contempt for compliance with the laws regarding civil liberties, due process and politically interfering with U.S. Attorneys.

Less publicized was its refusal to enforce the laws routinely transgressed by the corporate patrons of the White House—such as environmental crimes, consumer fraud, and anti-trust violations.

Obama has tools to restore law and order by the government itself. The Bully Pulpit. Ordering departmental directives. Issuing Executive Orders. Requesting legislation. Highlighting the integrity of the subdued and buffeted federal civil service which, with its oath of office, deserves far more effective whistleblowing protection laws.

The ACLU has just released: “Actions For Restoring America: How to Begin Repairing the Damage to Freedom in America After Bush.” Mr. Obama would do well to use this important report as blueprint for restoring faith in the U.S. Government’s commitment to the Constitution (see http://www.aclu.org/transition/). A second report titled: “Protecting Public Health and the Environment by the Stroke of a Presidential Pen by the Center for Progressive Reform suggests several Executive Orders that Mr. Obama could sign to advance important health, safety and the environment goals (see http://www.progressivereform.org/).

Barack Obama taught constitutional law at the University of Chicago. Let’s have it operate out of the Obama White House. And the time to start laying the groundwork is now! [Emphasis added.]

Protect World from Economy?

You know your problems are serious when eight scientific organizations urge the next U.S. president to “protect the country” not by way of changing the predatory economy but instead by means of “funding for research and forecasting” to dodge the climate change.

Instead of urging an immediate end to the exponential growth economy and demanding a zero-growth, low carbon, waste-free oikonomia for managing the environment, welfare of humans and other living species, and a system of ‘housekeeping’ for the planet’s natural resources to sustain life on Earth, the country’s top scientists are looking for ways of serving the economic Titanic.

The group includes the American Geophysical Union and the American Meteorological Society.

“We don’t think we have the right kind of tools to help decision makers plan for the future,” Jack Fellows, the vice president for corporate affairs of the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a consortium of 71 universities, told reporters on Wednesday.